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Chosen by BusinessWeek as one of the top 5 books of 2006 in careers. Read the full story at businessweek.com.

Imagine discovering what successful people have in common, distilling it into a set of simple practices, and using them to transform your life and work. Authored by three legends in leadership and self-help — including Built to Last co-author Jerry Porras — it challenges conventional wisdom at every step. Success Built to Last draws on face-to-face, unscripted conversations with hundreds of remarkable human beings from around the world. Meet billionaires, CEOs, presidents of nations, Nobel laureates and celebrities — the rich, the famous and the unknown. Meet unsung heroes who've achieved lasting impact without obvious power or charisma. Famous or not, most started out ordinary. Discover how successful people "harvest" their strengths and their weaknesses, their victories and their surprising failures. Discover how you can find meaning in your life and work just as they did and summon the courage to follow your passions. Above all, see how they've sustained success for decades and you can too.

Foreword by Senator John McCain

Acknowledgements

Introduction–From Built to Last to Success Built to Last

Chapter 1: From Great to Lasting–Redefining Success

Part I: Meaning–How Successful People Stay Successful

Chapter 2: Love it or Lose–Passions and the Quest for Meaning

Chapter 3: Portfolio of Passions–It’s Not About Balance

Chapter 4: Why Successful People Stay Successful–Integrity to Meaning

Part II: ThoughtStyles–Extreme Makeovers Start in Your Head

Chapter 5: The Silent Scream–Why It’s So Damn Hard to Do What Matters

Chapter 6: The Cause Has Charisma–You Don’t Have to Be Charismatic to Be Successful

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A Note from Sir Richard Branson Richard Branson is best known for his successful Virgin brand, encompassing everything from a record label, a chain of music retail stores, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, and more. In September, 2006, Branson agreed to donate $3 billion to fight global warming.

"There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passionsin a way that serves the world and you. In this book you will learn from unknown and famous peopleinspiring leaders like Nelson Mandela and entrepreneur Michael Dellalong with schoolteachers, scientists, community workers, athletes, artists, Nobel laureates and the Presidents of nations.

"From Bono and Quincy Jones to Maya Angelou and The Dalai Lama, they all challenged themselves to do more, be more and give back more than even they thought possible. Everyone wants success, but you can do better than that. This is an extraordinary book that finally reveals a meaningful 'secret formula' for success based on the lives of remarkable people."

Lessons of Lasting Success Watch video of co-author Mark Thompson as he interviews figures featured in Success Built to Last.

It is important to understand the two methodologies by which the authors obtained the material for this book. As they explain, first they completed more than 200 personal interviews from 1996 to 2006; after analyzing the responses, they identified 21 broad topic categories that emerged from the conversations. "The strongest of these made it into the book." Then, with their manuscript already drafted, they tested their assumptions by creating a unique independent survey to challenge their conclusions. What they call their "World Success Survey" was made available online (on April 18, 2006) to subscribers to Knowledge@Wharton. More than 365 people from around the globe responded within the first week.

"This independent sample of data provided a comparison set and validation for our interview findings, and showed significant differences in perceptions and mindsets between respondents categorized as `successful' or `unsuccessful' in their professional or personal lives."

It should also be noted that the authors "overlaid an unusual time limitation" on the "universe" of people interviewed: a 20-year minimum. With very few exceptions, they eliminated those who had achieved significant success in their careers for less than two decades. The group was largely over age 40 and the oldest individual interviewed was 95.

Others will have their own reasons for holding this book in high regard. Here are three of mine. First, the authors challenge conventional thinking about how successful people stay successful. Those interviewed as well as those who responded to the "World Success Survey" redefine success. For example, that everything in life should be kept in "balance.Read more ›

"Built to Last" came out a dozen years ago and had a big impact on the way people in business talked about what it was they were doing. When you boil all its concepts down, it was about making active choices. Don't be limited by the existing structure. Don't fall for the trap of not being able to do what you need to do because you think you have to do something else. Make sure that you know what your core foundation is and preserve that while you are fostering growth with Big Hairy Audacious Goals and trying lots of things, and making sure that your companies purposes and values are aligned.

This book takes those same principles, and a few others, and recasts them into three overlapping circles of meaning, thought, and action. Where those three overlap is the place where the title of book, "Success Built to Last", lies. Rather than researching companies as in the first book, Porras, Emery, and Thompson interviewed 200 "successful" people. Some famous, some rich, some not famous, some not rich. They were looking for common factors in what made their lives feel successful to them.

Not surprisingly, it boils down to being active about your choices. Don't play by rules made by others, don't enslave yourself to goals you think others want you to achieve, and don't measure your life by another's yardstick. Down that road is misery and lots and lots of psychotherapy (with or without drugs). This book is full of good advice, good anecdotes, and helpful sayings about how you go about setting up your own life and your own success.

I would also recommend "Small Giants" by Bo Burlingham for more stories about people who found success and meaning in successful companies without following the "normal" path to growth, riches, and misery.

This is a good book and I hope it sells a ton. But that is probably a safe bet. Recommended.

Almost everyone wants to be more successful. As evidence of that, look at the rows of shelves in book stores filled with self-help and success-related titles. But no one wants to be successful for the proverbial 15 minutes and then sink into ineffectiveness and obscurity.

Jerry Porras (coauthor of Build to Last), Stewart Emery (an important figure in the Human Potential Movement) and Mark Thompson (an unstoppable interviewer and executive coach) have combined their diverse talents to provide powerful insights into what has worked best for those who have sustained personal success for over 20 years. The book is one part methodology, one part great stories and one part keen insight.

Here was the process that led to the book. Interviews were held during 1996-2006 with over 200 high profile people who had enjoyed lasting success (CEOs, community leaders, professionals, politicians and small business people). For the most part, they avoided the geniuses in favor of people who built extraordinary results from more ordinary abilities and resources.

In early 2006, surveys were done on a worldwide basis with subscribers to Knowledge@Wharton to test the findings from the interviews.

Regression analyses were used to sort out the key influences. The results were used to structure the book's key conclusions.

What did they learn?

The key concept is that continually successful people combine meaning, thought and actions in mutually consistent ways that provide sustained performance.

Let me describe each area a little. Meaning is important because it ignites passion in you and others. Success requires persistence. Without continuing passion, it's hard to be persistent enough to be a lasting success.Read more ›